"Of course not, my dear--of course not; nothing but religion can bring
true happiness. Whenever I am tempted to be anxious about my children's
future, I always check myself by saying, 'The Lord will provide; though
I can not sometimes help hoping that the provision will be an ample one
as far as Felicia is concerned, because she is so extremely
nice-looking."

"She is perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Elisabeth enthusiastically; "and
she gets lovelier and lovelier every time I see her. If I were to change
places with all the rich men in the world, I should never do anything
but keep on marrying Felicia."

"Still, she could only marry one of you, my dear. But, between
ourselves, I just want to ask you a few questions about a Mr. Thornley
whom Felicia met at your house. I fancied she was a wee bit interested
in him."

"Interested in Chris! Oh! she couldn't possibly be. No girl could be
interested in Christopher in that way."

"Why not, my dear? Is he so unusually plain?"

"Oh! no; he is very good-looking; but he has a good head for figures and
a poor eye for faces. In short, he is a sensible man, and girls don't
fall in love with sensible men."

"I think you are mistaken there; I do indeed. I have known many
instances of women becoming sincerely attached to sensible men."

"You don't know how overpoweringly sensible Christopher is. He is so
wise that he never makes a joke unless it has some point in it."

"There is no harm in that, my dear. I never see the point of a joke
myself, I admit; but I like to know that there is one."

"And when he goes for a walk with a girl, he never talks nonsense to
her," continued Elisabeth, "but treats her exactly as if she were his
maiden aunt."

"But why should he talk nonsense to her? It is a great waste of time to
talk nonsense; I am not sure that it is not even a sin. Is Mr. Thornley
well off?"

"No. His uncle, Mr. Smallwood, is the general manager of our works; and
Christopher has only his salary as sub-manager, and what his uncle may
leave him. His mother was Mr. Smallwood's sister, and married a
ne'er-do-weel-who left her penniless; at least, that is to say, if he
ever had a mother--which I sometimes doubt, as he understands women so
little."

"Still, I think we can take that for granted," said Mrs. Herbert,
smiling with pride at having seen Elisabeth's little joke, and feeling
quite a wit herself in consequence. One of the secrets of Elisabeth's
popularity was that s